Sealing means for rotary intaglio printing press ink fountains



Jan. l7, l950 J E MEYER 2,495,l7

SEALING MEANS FOR ROTARY INTAGLIO PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAINS Original Filed April 21, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 J. E. MEYER ,495,01? SEALING MEANS FOR ROTARY INTAGLIO PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAINS Jan. 1'7, 1950 Original Filed April 21, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR.

2,495,017 ROTARY INTAGLIO PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAINS 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 J. E. MEYER SEALING MEANS FOR Jana W, 10;, 4

Original Filed April'2l INVENTOR "v M 17 E E ER SEALING MEANS ROTARY INTAGLIO PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAINS Original Filed April 21, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 2,495,017 AGLIO PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAINS Original Filed April 21, 1945 Jan. W, 1950 J. E. MEYER SEALING MEANS FOR ROTARY INT 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 o INVENTOR. 8,, Xw -W Patented Jan. 17, 1950 SEALING MEANS FOR ROTARY INTAGLIO PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAINS Joseph E. Meyer, Westerly,

Cottrell & Sons Company,

poration of Delaware Original application April 21, 1945, Serial No.

R. 1., assignor to (J. B. Westerly, R. 1., a cor- Divided and this application March 20, 1947, Serial No. 736,095

2 Claims.

My invention is directed to certain improvements in the construction, form and arrangement of the several elements of an enclosed ink fountain for rotary intaglio printing presses whereby the structure of the ink fountain is materially simplified and the operation of its movable elements facilitated.

The inking and wiping mechanisms shown and described but not claimed herein form the subjects matter of my copending applications filed February 1, 1945, serial Number 575,679, now Patent No. 2,460,184 patented Jan. 25, 1949, and April 21, 1945, Serial Number 589,598 respectively; the present application being a division of said copending application filed April 21, 1945, its Serial No. being 589,598.

My invention also comprises novel sealing means for the fountain at the upper portions of the printing cylinder at its ends combined with means for preventing the escape of the ink from the cylinder through the space between the back frame and doctor blade.

A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 represents a detail side elevation of the ink fountain with my improvements incorporated therein;

Fig. 2 represents a detail vertical section taken within the near side frame with the doctor frame locked to the carriage with the doctor frame in its wiping position;

Fig. 3 represents a detail rear elevation partly in section of the ink fountain;

Fig. 4 represents a detail top plan view partly in section of the ink fountain;

Fig. 5 represents on an enlarged scale a detail section taken in the plane of the line V--V of Fig. 3, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 6 represents on the same scale a detail section taken in the plane of the line VI-VI of Fig. 3, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. '7 represents a section taken in the plane of the line VII of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 represents a detail section similar to Fig. 6 with the doctor frame unlocked from the carriage and swung to the limit of its open position;

Fig. 9 represents a detail section taken in the plane of the line IX-IX of Fig. 8, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 10 represents an inside face View of one of the locking handles;

Fig. 11 represents a detail section taken in the plane of the line XI of Fig. 8, looking in the direction of the arrow; and

Fig. 12 represents a detail end view of one of the upper arms of the reciprocating carriage.

The printing press frame includes, generally, The

inker head and thereby onto the printing cylinder, from any suitable source, not shown herein, through the horizontally disposed pipe in which, in the present instance, is shown as being supported by the base I. This inker head forms the front wall of tain bowl 9. This inkerhead may be swung on its ink supply pipe [0 into and out of its inking position.

Means which will not be specifically described herein may be provided for the removal and replacement of the printing cylinder s'through' the front of the upper portion of the ink fountain when the inker head is swung to its lowered or non-inking position. A screen H separates the fountain bowl 9 into upper and lower portions.

A back frame I2 is fixedly mounted on the hollow base I on the opposite side of the printing cylinder 3 from the inker head 3, which back frame includes outer and inner walls l3 and M inclined upwardly and inwardly until they meet near the top of the printing cylinder adjacent the impression cylinder 4. The inner wall ill of this back frame forms the back wall of the upper portion of the fountain bowl 9. The ends of the back frame snugly contact the inner walls of the side frames 2 for sealing the ink fountain at these points;

The wiping mechanism for the printing cyliri der is constructed and arranged as follows. A slide bar [5 is fixedly secured to the inclined outer wall l3 of the back frame :2. This slide bar is provided with undercut upper and lower edges' l5 and I1.

A doctor reciprocating carriage I8 is mounted to slide on the fixed slide bar l5, said carriage being provided with a groove 19 for receiving the slide bar. The upper undercut side 20 of the groove l9 contacts the corresponding upper undercut edge l6 of the slide bar l5. A cross bar' Zl which is removably secured to the carriage l8 within the groove i9 is cut edge 22 which contacts the lower undercut pressure cylinder by 5.

the upper portion of the founprovided with an under- I 3 edge l1 of the crossbar I5. The carriage |8 may be reciprocated by providing the carriage at one end thereof with an uprising lug 23 attached to one end of a connecting rod 24 operated from a suitable power means, not shown herein.

The carriage I8 is also provided at each end with upper and lower arms 25 and 26. A shaft 21 is mounted to rock in bosses 28 on said lower arms 26. A stop 29 is carried by each of the lower arms 26 for limiting the outward swinging movement of the doctor frame away from its wiping position, which frame is shown as including two swinging brackets 39 having uprising portions 3| and depending arms 32. These arms 32 terminate in split bosses 33 having lugs 34 fitted to receive clamp screws 35 for securing the brackets to the rock shaft 21. These split bosses 33 are located adjacent the bosses 28 on the lower arms 26 of the carriage to cause the rock shaft 21 to reciprocate endwise with the said carriage l9.

Micrometer screw adjustments are provided for sliding the doctor blade platform 36 on the horizontal portions of the two brackets 39 toward and away from the printing cylinder 3 between guides 31 secured along the outer ends of the platform by screws 38 and overlapping the outer sides of the brackets 36. Sufiicient clearance is provided between the guides 31 and the brackets 36 to prevent binding of the doctor blade platform when being adjusted to bring the doctor blade into parallelism with the printing cylinder.

The usual doctor blade assembly comprises the doctor blade 39, the upper and lower blade clamping bars'40 and 4| and the blade deflecting bar 42. The lower clamping bar 4| is seated in a recess 43 extending across the inner edge of the platform 36 with its beveled edge portion projecting beyond the platform toward the printing cylinder. This lower clamping bar 4| is removably secured to the platform 36 by the bridge clamps 44 and their screws 45. This lower clamping bar 4| is shown as provided with two handles 46 for use in swinging the wiping mechanism into and out of its wiping position. The rear portion of the doctor blade 39 is shown as seated in a shallow recess 41 located along the bottom of the upper clamping bar 49, screws 48 being provided for clamping the upper and lower clamping bars together with the doctor blade therebetween. The doctor blade deflecting bar 42 is shown as secured by screws 49 to the upper jaw bar 49. The blade deflecting bar 42 may be provided with knobs 59 for facilitating the handling of the doctor blade.

The micrometer means for individually adjusting either end of the doctor blade orfor simultaneously adjusting both ends of the doctor blade toward and away from the printing cylinder to bring it into parallelism with the printing cylinder, is constructed and arranged as follows:

The doctor blade platform 36 of the swinging doctor frame is provided with two uprising portions located over the swinging brackets 39. Projecting arms 52 are removably secured by screws 53 to the tops of the said uprising portions 5|, recesses 54 being formed between the said arms '52 and the platform 36 for receiving nuts 55. said nuts being swiveled on axes perpendicular to the platform by providing the nuts with annular grooves for receiving the arms of yokes 56 provided with upper and lower trunnions 51 and 58 pivoted in said arms 52 and platform 36 respectively. Sufficient clearance should be provided between the cylindrical parts of the yokes 56 and the nuts 55 to permit the adjustment of the doctor blade platform 36 without its binding.

Doctor blade adjusting screws 59 are rotatably mounted in the uprising portions 3| of the swinging brackets 30, said screws having their inner portions 69 threaded into the said swiveled units 55. The outer non-threaded portions of these adjusting screws 59 are provided, exterior to the uprising portions 3|, with gears 6| which mesh with worms 62 fast on the alined coupled sections 63 and 64 of a divided hand shaft, which shaft sections are rotatably mounted in their respective casings 65 carried by the brackets 30, which casings house the worms 62 and worm gears 6|. The coupling 66 serves to releasably secure the inner adjacent ends of the alined shaft sections together. The outer ends of these shaft sections are provided with hand wheels 61 or 68. When the coupling 66 is tightened to clamp the two shaft sections together either one of the hand wheels 61 and 68 may be used to adjust the platform 36 and thereby the doctor blade bodily toward and away from the printing cylinder. When the coupling 66 is loosened the adjusting screws 59 may be individually adjusted for bringing the doctor blade into parallelism with the printing cylinder the units 55 permitting this individual adjustment of the ends of the platform 36.

Coil springs 69 are interposed between the outer end of the platform 36 and the adjacent faces of the uprising portions 3| of the brackets 39 for keeping a constant inward pressure on the platform 36 to eliminate any lost motion between the platform and the swinging brackets 39. The outer portions of these springs 69 may be housed in recesses 10 in the uprising portions 3| to keep the springs in place.

The means for releasably locking the swinging doctor frame to the reciprocating carriage and for limiting the inward movement of the doctor blade when it reaches its wiping position, is constructed and arranged as follows.

Vertical slots 1| extend across the free ends of the upper arms 25 of the doctor reciprocating carriage l8 and circular recesses 12 lead inwardly from the bottoms of these vertical slots. Coil springs 13 are located between the bottoms of the circular recesses 12 and washers 14 which are slidable on central pins 15 screwed into bottoms of said circular recesses.

Two parallel lock plates 16 are secured to the end of each of the upper arms 25 of the carriage in position to overlap the vertical slot 1|. These lock plates 16 are spaced apart sufficiently to permit the insertion and removal of the double cam surfaced cross head 11 of each of the lock pins 18 when the pins are turned to their unlocked position to bring the cross heads 11 to their vertical positions. These look pins 19 which are rotatably mounted in the heads 19 of lock levers having depending arms loosely mounted on the rock shaft 21 between the split bosses 33 on the depending arms 32 of the doctor frame brackets 39 and the arms 8| projecting from the carriage IS in line with the lower arms 26 thereof.

These lock pins 18 are provided with annular shoulders 82 near their double cam cross heads 11 to prevent outward endwise movement of the pins through lock lever heads 19.

Nuts 83 threaded on the outer ends of the lock pins 18 serve to crowd the hubs 84 of the handles 85 against the annular shoulders 86 on the lock pins to fix the handles thereon. To limit the throw of the handles 85 to their locked and unlocked positions studs 81 project from the outer faces of the heads 19 into curved slots 88 in the inner faces of the hubs 84 of the handles 85 concentric with the axes of their lock pins 18. These handles 85 are yieldingly held at the limits of their locked and unlocked positions by spring pressed balls 89 carried by the heads 19, which balls enter spaced shallow recesses 90 in the inner faces of the hubs 84 of the handles 85. It will be seen that when the double cam cross heads 11 of the lock pins 19 are turned from their vertical unlocked position to their horizontal locked position the double cam surfaces on the cross heads will be forced under their respective lock plates 16 against the pressure of the spring pressed washers 14. When the lock pins are turned to their unlocked position the spring pressed washers l4 serve to force the lock pins outwardly and thereby hold the doctor blade away from contact with the printing cylinder when the doctor frame is swung inwardly, until the lock pins are turned to their locked position. This locking movement will cause the double cam heads of the pins to force the washers 14 inwardly by the cam action of the heads with their lock plates 16. This arrangement prevents the doctor blade digging into the printing cylinder when the frame is swung toward the cylinder into position to be locked to the carriage by the turning of the lock pins to their locked position.

For the initial setting of the doctor frame in the correct wiping position with respect to the printing cylinder, the arms 32 of the swinging brackets 80 are brought into the proper position with respect to the arms 30 of the lock levers. Screw threaded holes 93 may be tapped in alinement with the holes 92 in the lugs 94 on the bracket arms 39 and screw bolts 9| inserted through the holes 92 into threaded engagement with the holes 93.

The means for sealing the ink fountain at the wiping mechanism is as follows.

A holder bar 95 is secured along the upper edge of the fixed back frame H. A sealing plate 96 which extends across the fountain is secured to the upper surface of the holder bar 95 by the strip 91. The upper edge of this sealing plate 96 presses against the beveled inner edge of the lower clamp bar 4| when the doctor blade is in its wiping position and forms an ink seal between the lower clamp bar and the top of the back frame.

Narrow spring strips 98 are secured at their lower ends to the under surfaces of the holder bar 95 at the ends of the printing cylinder 3. Sealing blocks 99 are secured to the upper portions of the said strips 98 in position to press against the under surfaces of the doctor blade and the lower blade clamping bar 4| beyond the upper edge of the sealing plate 96. These sealing blocks are located beyond the ends of the cylinder and they overlap the transverse surfaces of the said ends rather than the cylindrical periph cry of the cylinder at its ends.

The seals which are located at the ends of the printing cylinder between the inking and wiping mechanism are shown herein as comprising curved members I60 overlapping the cylinder and having depending flanges Hll which are secured to the side frames 2.

In operation: presuming the lock levers have been locked to the doctor frame by the screw bolts 9| and the doctor frame with the lock levers has been swung together to its open position against the stops 29. The doctor frame may then be swung inwardly until the double cam heads 11 of the locking pins 18 are engaged by the'spring pressed washers 14 in the upper arms 25 of the carriage l8. As has been heretofore explained,

these spring pressed washers, by their engagement with the double cam heads ll prevent the doctor blade 39 touching the printing cylinder 3. The turning of the pins 18 to their locking positions will cause the cams on the heads 11 to engage the inner walls of the lock plates 16 and force the spring pressed washers back and move the doctor blade inwardly to its wiping position. An accurate setting of the doctor blade 39 may then be accomplished by adjusting the ends of the platform 36 either simultaneously or individually by the manipulation of the micrometer adjusting screws 59 through the divided shaft 63, 64 and its hand wheels 61, 68; it being understood that either hand wheel may be used when the shaft sections 63, 66 are clamped together by the coupling 66 to adjust both ends of the doctor blade 39 at the same time. When the shaft sections 63, 64 are released from each other by loosening the coupling 66 either end of the platform 36 of the swinging doctor frame and thereby the doctor blade 39 may be adjusted to bring the doctor blade into parallelism by the manipulation of the proper hand wheel. When it is desired to unlock the doctor frame and swing it together with the lock levers to their open position against the stops 29 on the lower arms 26 of the carriage IS the lock levers are released from the carriage by turning the lock pins 19 into position to release their cross heads 11 from their engagement with the lock plates 16 on the upper arms 25 of the carriage. It will be observed that the doctor frame may be swung to its open position and returned to its wiping position without disturbing the previous accurate setting of the doctor blade.

It is evident that various changes may be resorted to in the construction, form and arrangement of the several parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and hence I do not intend to be limited to the particular embodiment herein shown and described, but what I claim is:

' 1. In an enclosed ink fountain, a base, a fixed back frame, a slide bar fixedly secured thereto, a printing cylinder and a wiping mechanism there. for comprising a carriage mounted to reciprocate on the slide bar, a doctor frame pivoted to swing on the reciprocating carriage, a doctor blade, upper and lower blade clamping bars, a doctor blade deflecting bar surmounting the upper blade clamping bar, means for providing an ink seal between the back frame and doctor blade when the doctor blade is in its wiping position, comprising a holder bar secured along the upper edge of the back frame and a sealing plate secured to the upper surface of the holder bar and pressing against the inner edge of the lower blade clamping bar, narrow spring strips secured to the holder bar at their lower ends and sealing blocks secured to the upper portions of the spring strips in position to press against the under surfaces of both the doctor blade and the said inner edge of the lower blade clamping bar beyond the upper edge of the said sealing plate, said sealing blocks being located beyond the ends of the cylinder and overlapping the transverse surfaces of the said ends.

- 2. In an enclosed ink fountain, a base, a fixed back frame, a slide bar fixedly secured thereto,

a printing cylinder and a wiping mechanism therefor comprising a carriage mounted to reciprocate on the slide bar, a doctor frame pivoted to swing on the reciprocating carriage, a doctor blade, upper and lower blade clamping bars having oppositely beveled inner edges, a doctor blade deflecting bar surmounting the upper blade clamping bar, means for providing an ink seal between the back frame and doctor blade when the doctor blade is in its wiping position, comprising a holder bar secured along the upper edge of the back frame and a sealing plate secured to the upper surface of the holder bar and pressing against the beveled inner edge of the lower clamping bar when the doctor blade is in its wiping position, narrow spring strips secured to the holder bar at their lower ends and sealing blocks secured to the upper portions of the spring strips in position to press against the under sur- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,049,846 Little Aug. 4, 1936 2,097,791 Heller Nov. 2, 1937- 2,098,750 Krahmer Nov. 9, 1937 2,110,289 Crafts Mar. 8, 1937 2,178,069 Crafts Oct. 31, 1939 

